i mean. a meteoric rise to stardom a once in a century meteorite hits central russia exploding with the force of around twenty hiroshima bombs and leaving more than twelve hundred people injured. egypt's support of saeed is gripped by mass protests led by football fans who are furious over the damning court verdict that blamed local supporters for a stadium riot that left more than seventy people dead last year. and more nuclear test shock waves from north korea which detonates a third device despite a un ban and international sanctions.

with today's top news and the week's top stories this is r t with the weekly i'm trying thomas glad to have you with us now the world was wide eyed this week over dramatic images from central russia a plunging meteor exploded with a blinding flash before crashing in to the urals early on friday now you can imagine with such crazy images coming from the area look at this light flashing across the sky residents who saw the fireball race above their heads while it took a while for people to realize what exactly was happening now the blast set off a powerful shock wave smashing windows in buildings while injuring and be willed ring those inside you can see creating a sense of chaos after a struggle to locate traces of the space visitor a team from the russian academy of sciences has reportedly found some remnants of that meteor or two you would have takes a closer look now at how it all unfolded. it

was like a scene from a movie but with one exception it was real first the brilliant flash was big bright like he was shining across the sky you know blinding brighter than the sun the skies were lit up by a meteor streaking across the skies above the russian city of over one and a half thousand kilometers east of moscow where not just any usual glare on the floor i thought it was lies from a cockpit then we ran to the window saw this strange cloud and then and then this. let me turn around and the wall was gone like someone had moved it the series of massive explosions rocked the entire city damaging buildings and shattering windows . nasa said the explosive force of the media were breaking up was the equivalent of

twenty heroes shimon bombs over twelve hundred people were injured including over two hundred children mostly from pieces of shattered glass. the windows just exploded i saw one girl he had and a bring his hand we were told to quickly put our clothes on and ran out so many were able to film the owner of the phenomenon later flooding the web with footage as rumors spread of what it might have been a stricken airplane a satellite that fell out of orbit even the beginning and of the world would mrs reported seeing fragments of the crashing all across the region. i saw a small can there was a weird smell but it was not a fire so i think it's a piece of meat and it's small during them no for now the immediate priority is to look after the injured and repair the damage to buildings especially the broken windows in schools and residential areas as temperatures. drop below minus fifty

celsius is going to take time to clear everything else but for now science like this collapsed factory or a clear reminder no matter how advanced technology gets nowadays often when it comes to nature we can only watch helplessly and hope for the best. parties you've got to be going off reporting from the girls there where it all took place now despite the huge size of the meteor its appearance in the russian skies was quite a surprise it entered the earth's atmosphere completely unnoticed by anyone. explains why. you may wonder why the scientists haven't seen this thing coming after all it was quite a doozy was really large as a matter of fact buzz at the same time the scientists are saying that there are way too many things flying out there in outer space and although this one was a big one they can't really keep track of everything that's coming but seriously this thing weighed more than ten thousand tons when it was approaching earth so the scientists say of course when it entered the atmosphere it mindblowing the speed of

thirty kilometers per second that's really really fast when it entered the atmosphere it broke into several pieces and those went scattering all over the region this is the region that we're actually concerned with but it actually went all around the place we're only going with what the scientists and the emergency ministries are saying and they're saying that this icy pits this is a crater where the fragment one of the fragments has fallen of course we have to understand that this actually has been the biggest thing to hit this planet in over a century or so the scientists believe the last time something like this happened was in one thousand nine hundred eighty two when the your crash landed somewhere in siberia destroying thousands of square kilometers of forests causing acid rains to fall causing me to asians and plants and forests but it's also one of the biggest mysteries in the universe because nobody has ever found a crater from the meteor or no no fragments of the meteor have been found so this

is kind of a big mystery that a lot of people are trying to cash in on this the even even today one hundred years later but back to reality back to present day region of course there has been plenty of damage you have seen the pictures of the damaged plants and buildings but actually a lot of people are saying it could have been a lot worse if history is any indication they're all. massive you were cosmo. and russia the european space agency others that are out there trying to detect its record asteroids but honestly there's a lot of there's hundreds of thousands and their biggest focus is on the really large ones ones that are hundreds of meters in diameter of kilometers in diameter that could potentially you know do to us what happened to the dinosaurs and another thing that been screeching is actually something of a nuclear hotspot in russia and fact during the soviet era this was the place for

nuclear research so it has at least seven nuclear facilities that are located in the region and a lot of people are saying that if at least one of them was hit with one of the fragments from an asteroid we would have been dealing with complications infinitely worse than we're having on our hands right now we would be dealing with a nuclear disaster but thankfully that did not happen and although this entire event was rather frightening and quite damaging still things could have been a lot worse and it's a good thing that everything turned out the way it did the dramatic strike led to an immediate online response with dramatic images and video being shared in bloggers speculating as to what had just happened the impact also triggered an entrepreneurial impulse amongst some of the locals who wanted to sell parts of what they claimed was the meteor the most expensive pieces would set a potential buyer back a cool ten thousand dollars however the offer left many skeptical as even scientists at the scene had trouble locating what was left of the meteor after it

broke apart or he's lindsay france and our own kevin owen have been looking at the online reaction. the twitter sphere is blowing up the internet is just chock full of funny outrageous just odd things people are posting with maybe a little too much time on their hands you know all this video is great and wonderful but then you hit twitter and you see posts like this tanks are passing down the streets citizens are urged to get out of the shelters lunchbox handouts program been arranged only thing and you realized ok this is not really happening this is not the truth the same guy sits there and starts tweeting about what's happening in town saying we're being given chemical protection and gas masks the city is almost entirely evacuated we're setting up barricades and in islam you know we joke you know the power of these things i mean it was a frightening of if you didn't know what was happening at the time if you're reading this it could spread but it would startle you and why is he why does it have so much time to tweet about all of this happening and then you've got you've got the merely funny stuff the citizens of chile have been skaar already checking

to see which superpowers they have god knows of you know the radiation from the explosion may have caused them to have extra to be excellent tomorrow but honestly when you come to our local weather reports it's negative seventeen degrees celsius in chelyabinsk there's wind and a slight meteor that's more clever yeah. i think so ok and then you know who is the guy who you know it's that one liner that happens around valentine's day pluck a star from the sky who is that you know what who promised to pick a star from the sky on valentine's day you're certainly going to mean the details of course and then you've got people from over you know english speaking countries tweeting about breaking news baby found in the middle of a meteorite crash that he's miraculously unharmed wrapped in what seems to be a red cape and allusion to superman if you get that i got when i saw i thought that was nice and then of course you've got the photoshop action of angry birds flying in on the tail as

a meteor coming in then you've got the russian or bruce willis popular boy are going to have the worrying sign to stores this stuff kill. my brother please don't laugh said happened all those years ago guess you never know get a better man you don't know what's going to hit you just know i stick in iraq right over there russia from the united states field karate hero because you know you have to go ask where these friends are not well and then of course our the rock down to the crash site as he does you know as i think about it that's nice excellent lots of fun while also we've got one as well a football fan was over in britain for a couple of this one football speculating over that much for three rushes is indeed a little hole just a day before he said it could be read snow for a meteor or a meteor shower would come down and hey what did he know that we didn't when i saw this i was thinking you know what i want to know when the red snow is. your place spread so much or losing us will let you get on with it thank you very much well

you can find out more about the media or on our web site r t dot com there we've got a special section completely devoted to the unexpected in space against including the exact timeline of the incident as well as more images and firsthand accounts. of the egyptian the city of port sorry it has been brought to a standstill by protests spearheaded by local football supporters the strike action affected to transport communication as well as other government services this follows a wave of unrest in the city unleashed by a court decision to convict a local soccer fans for inciting last year's riot that left more than seventy people dead but all true has the latest on that from cairo. the culture of hardcore football fans who call these acts of allegiance how upset they will escalate in the

next few days if their demands a not match to be expecting tomorrow and then the following the next three days for that to be similar occiput disobedience across this very restive city what happened today is we saw about three thousand people come to the streets of poor saeed basically showing anger against the president the authorities they reportedly surrounded the governor building they managed to actually get government employees on the science they stopped the hobbit from working and even went to the telecom buildings this however was not just the ultras the hardcore football fans who were in both other sections go to there were students teachers who staged protests after the death of a young student over the past few weeks in clashes in port sayit and as i said government protests during dinner as well so what we're seeing really is taking quite a step towards independence from the country expressing their anger and this is

stretching across different parts of the city what they're saying the reason that they're angry is on twenty six january there was this court verdict the sort twenty one citizen sentenced to death after this deadly football massacre that happened last year in february and basically poor saeed people are saying this is unfair in addition they're saying that the anger all of the security forces so the way that they reacted to protests by following this very contentious decision saw dozens die they said that this security forces attacked the people of poor saif with live ammunition to look at the anger here is also got to do with the reaction of the security forces off the protests following this very contentious verdicts as i said they will escalate in the next few days people are predicting violence and they want to continue to break the curfew which is on the city. continue these active disobedience possibly bringing the city to a standstill for the next week. anti-government protesters have been active in

bahrain as well as demonstrations against the ruling monarchy were once again plunged into violence this weekend scores of marchers were reportedly injured when security forces used tear gas and stun grenades after being pelted by stones and petrol bombs the protest began at the funeral of a teenager who was allegedly killed by security forces during a rally marking two years of anti-government unrest that incident and of the turmoil which followed put in doubt talks between the sunni dominated government and the mostly shia opposition while activists maintain it there are no signs of either progress or impending. we're looking at two years in which we've seen no reform we've seen nothing change i mean we started this uprising two years ago and on that day the monster of the uprising was killed and now two years later on the same day the fourteenth of february another teenager has been killed and this really shows and displays the lack of reform continuous human rights abuses the continuous repression taking place on the streets of bahrain it's good that

dialogue has come back on the agenda and there is discussions happening but it seems that you know this latest latest escalation of the security against the people is going to possibly put dined in jeopardy within the ruling family i think of course there are those who simply want to please the international community to say look we're having this dialogue and there is not a great thing was continuing with the violations on the street. still ahead exit polls suggest that the current leader of ecuador rafael correa has won the country's presidential elections. later in the program but we explain why the results could prove pivotal for the world's most famous whistleblower joining us on first when short break. speak your language. programs and. documentaries in arabic.

for the. interview intrigued. arabic. visit arabic. is.

glad to have you back with us now voting has finished his presidential elections with exit polls suggesting the incumbent rafael correa has won a third term the socialist leader has strong popular support within the country thanks to spending programs targeted at helping the poor the president is also known for granting asylum to the world's most famous whistleblower who is holed up in the country's london embassy for the latest joined by geo political analyst eric draitser who is in new york eric thanks very much for being with us now opinion polls show that korea has a lead of more than fifty percent over his nearest rival i've met the guy is pretty affable why is he so popular with the general public. well introduction there i think you hit on one of the major points in that is that the korea government in

the in the face of a global economic depression in the face of countries that are dependent upon petro dollars their economies sagging correia and his government decided instead of austerity to go with social spending and in particular massive investment in infrastructure in education and in health care all of which is designed to boost human capital and to boost the lives of the poor and the working class and so for that reason alone he's incredibly popular now of course we should also remember korea's oppositional stance to the united states and to u.s. imperialism korea's oppositional stance to multinational corporations such as chevron and other corporations which seek to exploit indigenous populations in places like ecuador so there's a number of populist aspects to korea and his administration that i think explain quite clearly why he's so popular and why you'll easily be elected to this new term well you mentioned his oppositional stance to the u.s.

but there were seven other candidates in these elections still he is reportedly getting more than fifty percent of the vote most of those other candidates were pro washington how seriously can they as an opposition challenge korea's authority. well they can challenge his authority only in so far as they'll be backed by the united states and the intelligence network such as the cia we've seen repeated attempts by the united states and other international forces to subvert the korea government to subvert the morale is government in bolivia as well and of course chavez in venezuela we saw against the korea government an attempted coup a couple of years ago using some strategically bought off officials within the police apparatus and there have been a number of attempts at destabilizing his government for all of the reasons that i mentioned but again if you look at his main rival in this election campaign it is somebody who is close to the wall street establishment a banker

a financier so naturally somebody who is totally removed from the people of ecuador whom looking at korea merely the first son of their country rather than a surrogate for washington in the city of london now close to our heart here at r t he has known for granting asylum to julian assad last year something that angered america as well was that considered a pre-election move to gain some support here. i think partially that's part of it i think it was also a way of kind of striking back at the united states after their attempted coup against him in two thousand and ten it was a way of announcing to the world that ecuador was not within this fear of influence of the united states or rather that ecuador was able to make its own decisions to stand on its own two feet and also that it was promoting human rights and peace that a songe whatever anybody thinks of him a songes surely not the criminal that washington has made him out as being and

korea i think to his credit took the side of peace took the side of human rights and took the side of dignity against the imperial system that was seeking to attack a songe as a whistleblower and as the leader of the movement all right always interesting to hear your thoughts going to be interesting to see how this all plays out eric draitser from new york appreciate you being with us thank you. now north korea is reportedly preparing for fresh nuclear tests and that's despite widespread international fieri after a detonated a third atomic device on tuesday pyongyang described the move as an effort to shore up its national security and to safeguard its sovereignty against what it called outrageous u.s. hostility the test prompted warnings from washington and its allies of a more sanctions against the communist state asia based independent news editor james corbett says that the timing of the latest test could not have been worse. really i think going to fall into

a lot of diplomatic pressure on china to use its leverage with north korea in this and i imagine that officials in beijing must have known that this this was coming probably in the next few days and it certainly is it couldn't have happened at a worse time internationally speaking it's the lunar new year in china so basically the entire country is on holiday and in the u.s. there is no confirmed secretary of defense or central intelligence director so it's a very interesting time to throw that through into that the wild card of xi jinping we don't know much about him or how he's going to lead china and the fact that kim jong un is a relatively new leader as well you also have the new army government in japan and there's a lot of wildcards in this mix to see how this is going to shake out but i think on the question of china specifically if they have a lot of pressure that they can put on north korea. now let's take a look at some other international stories in brief for you this hour in northern nigeria a security guard has been shot dead and seven foreign workers have been kidnapped when militants attacked a construction site among the nationals have been taken hostage or to lebanese and

italian and one greek national militants abducting foreigners and wealthy nigerians for ransom has become a relatively common occurrence in the country last month's deadly algeria oil plant a seizure left many fearing such attacks would surge in west africa because of regional instability in. pakistan people have taken to the streets to voice their outrage at the killing of eighty one shia muslims in the city of quetta protesters in islamabad in karate have demanded the government boost security and take action against the sunni militants who carried out the attack some families even refused to bury the victims until they see that their demands are answered. israel's former foreign minister is being tried for fraud and breach of trust hearings started on sunday. dore lieberman is accused of trying to promote a source that lead to details of a police probe into his business activities the former top diplomat had to step

down from his post last december when the charges were first brought a close ally of prime minister benjamin netanyahu if convicted he will be banned from holding any government post for seven years spain is engulfed in protests with thousands gathering in madrid and several other cities in simultaneous marches but over quite different issues employees of the spanish airline iberia are angry at its british based parent company's plans to layoff almost five thousand workers that's a quarter of its staff and in a separate rally thousands marched against government proposals to partly privatized public health care political analyst amy holmes believes that the protests are becoming more generalized with more anger being directed against the political system as a whole. the way the the work is so high various seeds this magic that was affected between nigeria and which is there was two years ago has favored massively reduce our waste now apart from that but the fact is that it is true that. the leadership

of these holding is mostly pretty spaced and they have been unable to sue to find a compromise with hispanics were forced by land them but that's the way to use with we had seen last year was mostly sick tauriel protests health care or education where it is essential now we see in a more generalized anger of this is the not just of the government but the whole political system and this has to do with the scandals of corruption which are now very prominent in the spanish media people are very angry about that and what we see any said actually something very new in spain a very wide and deep protest and that it goes far beyond a state all the problems caused by those that are. more news in half an hour's time meanwhile stay with us for what as we explore behind the scenes of european politics that's in brussels and business after this break.

all of those north korean scamps added again another nuclear test in north korea has made all the headlines trust me nuclear missiles are something worth being concerned over but haven't we heard this song and dance before all the way back in two thousand and two the north korean scoring to the b.b.c. ruled that they have a secret weapons program and turned their young beyond nuclear reactor back on since then every once in a while a missile flies and people see the war is coming and silence then another test of some sort shock horror and then silence again with great just uses this is a bargaining tool to get what they want and then how wacky the north korean state may seem they understand that launching one or two missiles against united states means they probably won't even hit their target and in return their entire country

would turn into ash instantly this situation really isn't cause for concern until something big changes like the us not being in a position to support south korea japan or some other dramatic event that changes the game like china giving up their support for the north korean side but for now the cycle just keep going on and on and about two years the same headlines will be back with the same fear will be back a lather rinse repeat but that's just my opinion.